Trustmark asks where to send Stanford money

DALLAS, Texas – Trustmark National Bank asked a federal judge to decide who gets the money from Allen Stanford’s Ponzi scheme: the U.S.-appointed receiver or Antiguan-appointed liquidators.
Courthouse News Service reports that Trustmark, based in Jackson, filed a complaint Tuesday against Ralph S. Janvey, the U.S. court-appointed receiver for the Stanford entities, and Marcus Wide and Hugh Dickson, the Antiguan-appointed joint liquidators of Stanford International Bank Ltd.
Trustmark says its Stanford bank accounts have an aggregate balance of more than $582,000.
“Competing orders appointing the receiver and the Antiguan joint liquidators raise questions of competing interests to the contractual rights to the deposit accounts,” the complaint states.
In July, U.S. District Judge David Godbey in Dallas ruled in favor of Janvey over Antiguan-appointed liquidators Nigel Hamilton-Smith and Peter Wastell in the collection of Stanford assets.
The duo had filed for recognition in Dallas Federal Court under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in 2009 and jockeyed with Janvey over the collection and payment of Ponzi scheme assets for years.
Godbey only granted the joint liquidators “foreign nonmain” recognition because he concluded the Stanford entities’ “center of main interest” was the United States, not Antigua.
Trustmark filed a parallel complaint against Janvey, Eastern Caribbean Amalgamated Bank and Mastercard International, over their competing claims for $403,000 in Stanford funds in two other accounts.
In both complaints, Trustmark seeks an order relieving it from liability associated with the accounts.